Kross-European Song Contest of 1954
This was the 29th edition of the contest and was held in 1954. Kross Company again collaborated with RECORDZA and EmbeX for the edition of the contest. The contest was to be hosted in the 2nd week of May like the 1950 and 1952 contest with semi finals on the Wednesday and Thursday and the final on the Saturday. This meant the first semi final would be held on 12th May 1954, the second semi final on the 13th May 1954 and the Grand Final on 15th May 1954. After the departure of Magnus Nibbelink again, nobody wanted to take the job except Marie Francis. She won the contest for Luxembourg in 1945, represented them in 1950 and 1952 and had many degrees for the job. Hosting Austria won the 1953 contest but due to the country not existing as a unified state along with the western powers of France and United Kingdom not wanting the contest to be hosted in the Soviet occupied zone, made a vote to decide a new host. 100 employees of Kross Company voted for the seven candidates and each round, one candidate was removed until it was a one on one and the majority would win. All seven candidates are: Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Spain. In Round 1, Belgium got 58 points; Switzerland got 23; France got 9; Netherlands got 6; Germany got 3; United Kingdom got 1 and Spain got 0. This means that Spain was eliminated from the first round. Because there were no points to distribute, United Kingdom and Germany were also eliminated. Germany was heavily not favoured to win due to having hosted five times before and as recent as 1952. In Round 2, Belgium got 62 points; Switzerland got 24 points; France got 9 and Netherlands got 5 points. This meant that Netherlands and France were eliminated because they had too small of the vote. In Round 3 only Belgium and Switzerland remained. Belgium got 84 points while Switzerland got only 16 points meaning Belgium would host. Antwerp was chosen to host the venue. Participants The countries hosting a national final are: The countries using internal selection are: * Andorra * Albania * Austria * Bulgaria * Finland * Hungary * Iceland * Ireland * Israel * Luxembourg * Malta * Poland * Portugal * Romania * Russia * Spain * Turkey * Ukraine * Wales * Yugoslavia The countries using a different method are: * Cyprus (2nd in Greece's national final) * Liechtenstein (2nd in Switzerland's national final) * Monaco (2nd in France's national final) * San Marino (2nd in Italy's national final) Grouping There are 6 automatic qualifiers: * Belgium (host) * Switzerland * Netherlands * France * Italy * United Kingdom Each pot will have 6 countries in 5 pots Semi Final 1 RTop 7 qualify The qualifiers from the first semi final are: * Cyprus - 148 points * Ukraine - 144 points * Greece - 204 points * Denmark - 256 points * Wales - 159 points * Russia - 131 points * Norway - 227 points Semi Final 2 The qualifiers from the second semi final are: * Germany with 261 points * Sweden with 201 points * Czechia with 142 points * Ireland with 160 points * Austria with 176 points * Portugal with 147 points * Turkey with 220 points Final Results * Belgium * Switzerland * Netherlands * France * Italy * United Kingdom The show started at 6:00pm local time and finished at 9:17pm local time. The songs took up 2 hours and 15 minutes, there was a 20 minute interval act and then the results which took 40 minutes approximately. The table below shows the votes of all non-participating countries in the final. The table afterwards will show the total, the televote, the main participating juries and the final places. Even though they were not participating in any of the show, the juries from East Germany and Belarus also voted. Austria and France's points will be included in the first table due to no space in the second.